Man Pleads Guilty to Jam Master Jay’s Murder 25 Years Later

Photo Credit: Run-D.M.C. in 1985 by Jeff Pinilla / CC by 3.0

A man has pleaded guilty to his role in the 2002 murder of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay. The plea comes three years after he was charged.

Jay Bryant, 52, the third man accused in the murder of DJ Jam Master Jay back in 2002, pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday. He was charged nearly three years ago in the death of the musician, whose real name was Jason Mizell, one-third of the pioneering rap group Run-D.M.C. Bryan initially pleaded not guilty when he was charged.

On Monday (April 27), in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, Bryant agreed to plead guilty to a murder charge. There, he admitted that he helped let men into the building who would ambush and kill Mizell at his New York studio in October 2002.

“I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,” Bryan told the judge. “I knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.”

Though Bryant did not name the men whom he assisted in the crime, his plea comes after two other men—Mizell’s godson and a friend—were convicted of his murder. One of these men won an appeal last year to have his conviction overturned, while the other is still fighting his own case.

According to prosecutors, Mizell’s godson, Karl Jordan Jr., shot the musician while Ronald Washington, a known friend of Mizell’s, blocked the door so he couldn’t escape. Bryant allegedly entered the building earlier and assisted the other two men in their ambush by opening a back door for them. Witnesses claim to have seen Bryant entering Mizell’s recording studio immediately before the shooting; his DNA was found on a hat left at the scene.

Jordan and Washington were convicted by a jury in 2024. Prosecutors believe that they killed Mizell in revenge for a soured drug deal. Mizell allegedly had 22 pounds of cocaine he was going to have the two men (and others) distribute, but something happened that led to him removing Washington from the deal. Feeling slighted, Washington hatched a plot to kill Mizell.

Mizell, better known as DJ Jam Master Jay, teamed up with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels in the 1980s, producing some of their biggest hits. He also went on to produce music and mentor other artists, including 50 Cent.